Intro, & tire/wheel advice needed. Keys too?

[nightfly]

Hi, my name's Don. I just purchased a 98 SLC, looks ivory color. about 110k miles. Runs great, but wheels are enkei with lots of road rash. Will need new tires too, so I'm looking for new wheels. Spotted Konig Runlite's in gold which will probably go well with the ivory color of the car. But I'd prefer to go up a little and get 17" wheels, maybe with 7.5" width. I'm wondering what size tires will be appropriate, as well as a recommendation for a good tire for rain. I had used Fuzion ZRi's on my 928, but when I looked they don't seem to make those anymore. Bridgestone made Fuzions, so I'm guessing I'll have to go with one of their tires. But all suggestions welcome.

Oh yeah, are the programmable keys available online somewhere reliable?

Wheel:

 

[chris2523]

245/45-17 or 245/50-17 will work.

245/50 will have the correct height for the speedo, but 245/45s have a whole lot more options.

 

[Bangster]

If you keep a narrow rim like a 7.5, 235/55/17 is also a popularly available tire. 1/2 inch taller than stock.

There are sellers on eBay for the PATs key which is 97/98 Mark VIII ONLY. Prepare for sticker shock, one seller offers to optionally cut it from a provided image of your key and guarantees it, I have had miss cut keys before which is different for a .69 cent key versus a 50 dollar key.

You can program it in yourself. I recently took an already cut to another car key, a regular blank cut for my car, and programmed it in. It is a backup, as it means I have to put the PATs key around the ignition switch and use the plain cut key, but better than only having one key!

 

[nightfly]

As a lot of these tires will last for years, I don't want to screw up the performance with too big diameter. Hoping that won't happen, but whatever, I'll live with it. Right now leaning towards 235 55 17's on Konig runlight wheels 17x7.5 45 offset 6" backspace. Just waiting till monday to check with the folks at performanceplustire for final information. Initially I was going with some Bridgestones, but the Firestone wide oval indy 500 series comes in the size I want and their tread pattern appears to be identical with the Fuzion ZRi's I used on my 928, which were excellent in the rain. Knowing that Bridgestone makes both tires, I'm guessing they discontinued the fuzion line ones and just transferred the tire to firestone.